A Mysterious Fate
by Indigofaery
Summary: When an unknown girl is found in Spira, Yuna and her guardians decide to take her in. What they don't know is this girl has a mysterious past that must be uncovered to save Spira from certain destruction.
1. Sketches under the Willow tree

A/N: Yaaay, my second ficcy! This idea sorta just popped into my head randomly and I was like 'wow! I should use that as a ficcy idea!' So guess what! I am! Hah! Warning for those who have NOT finished FFX, there are potential spoilers in this ficcy and I'm only going to tell you once! So if you haven't finished it, close this browser window RIGHT NOW and go finish it! **–**cracks whip- it's worth your while! –nods- Umm... anyway.. please please PLEASE let me know if the main character starts turning into a 'Mary Sue' cause I DEFNINATLEY don't want that to happen! One of my friends warned me that I was 'toeing the line' so I guess I gotta be careful. –nods- anyway, onto the ficcy! I hope you enjoy!

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DISCLAMER: I do not own the Final Fantasy series company thing. Yet. –evil grin-

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**Chapter One – Sketches under the Willow tree**

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Report card day. The one day I hated the most in the entire school year. Granted, I never liked school, but report cards always seemed to ruin my day. Doing well in school was hard for me... it seemed no matter how hard I tried and no matter how much I studied I always seemed to fail a class or two. I started to walk towards the gymnasium where my High School always decided to hand out report cards. I knew for a fact I was going to face certain death once I got home with my report card to show my mother. I knew I failed math from the look of my final and maybe, just _maybe_ I scraped by with a C in French.

Finding a spot in line for the grade ten report cards, I could already see the scene in my head with my mother when I got home.

_'You're never going to get anywhere with these marks, Ember! How many times do I have to tell you that you have to buckle down and study more! Every day!'_

_'Mom, you know I have trouble in school and I always have, there's nothing we can do about it alright!'_

'_Nothing we can do about it, eh? We'll see about that, you're going to summer school.'_

Then I would sigh loudly and storm off into my room, tugging at my long jet black hair while trying not to scream bloody murder at the top of my lungs. Oh yes, that was exactly how it was going to happen.

"Hey Em! You excited that school's out for the summer?"

I turned around to see my bubbly friend Jaymee bounce into line behind me. I should say my only friend. Somehow her and I got labeled as outcasts on the first day of grade nine. Neither of us could ever figure it out and finally came to accept the fact that we would never be accepted by the 'in' crowd, or the 'popular' people. High School cliques made me sick.

"Not really. I know for a fact my mom's going to send me to summer school. Again." I said, sighing. My mother started sending me to summer school against my will after grade six, even before my marks started slipping. I was doing fine in grade six but she decided to send me to summer school anyway. I would never know why she did... though I often liked to come to the conclusion that my mother was insane and needed to be committed.

"Rats, that sucks," Jaymee said, twisting one of her bouncy auburn curls on her index finger. "Why does your mom make you go anyway? She's been sending you there since what, grade six? That's just insane."

"I duno why," I admitted. "Seems to me that she thinks it'll better prepare me for next year or something."

Turning around I noticed that I was one person away from getting my report card from the secretary that was handing them out. My heart skipped a beat; this was the moment of truth. The moment I would find out whether or not I would be chained to the wall, hanging by my thumbs all summer in summer school. My marks always seemed to dictate how long I would spend in the concrete prison they called summer school.

"Name?" The blonde middle-aged secretary asked.

"Ember Yevon." I replied. My last name was supposed to be pronounced 'Yey-vonne' but everyone always found ways to vary the pronunciation.

The secretary pulled out a cream colored envelope from the box in front of her and handed it to me. "Have a good summer," she said, smiling.

"Thanks.." I said, forcing a smile. How was I supposed to have a good summer when I was to spend it in a concrete and tile cell, trapped on an uncomfortable wooden chair?

I waved to Jaymee; I didn't have time to share my marks. Not that I really wanted to at that. I had to catch my bus home.

Walking across the wooden floor of the Gym seemed to take forever. Outside lay my few minutes of freedom before my mother's screeching could be heard across town. Sighing, I pushed open the heavy doors and inhaled fresh air.

Just then my bus trundled by.

"Greeeeeeat," I muttered. Now I had to wait another half hour before the next bus came. Not that I was in any rush to get home.

Sighing, I let my backpack fall to the ground with a heavy thump underneath the willow tree in the school's front yard. Sitting down beside my backpack, I ripped open the envelope, wanting to get it over with.

Scanning the sheet in front of me I took in my marks for this semester. _Math – 49, History – 64, English – 83, French – 55, Art – 96._

I muttered to myself as I dug out my sketchbook and art pencils. That stupid bitch of a math teacher couldn't pass me now could she? Noo she wanted to make me suffer all summer! Well now we knew where my real talents lay. Art and English. _'Whoopee, that's going to get me reaall far,'_ I thought to myself as I started to sketch on a blank piece of paper.

Fifteen minutes later I had finished a rough sketch of scenery that had been haunting my dreams for the past few weeks. In the distance were several people, all of whom I had never seen but in those dreams. In the sky above a girl with her hands raised over her head, a staff in one hand, hovered what I thought looked like a giant monster-like thing. It had a wingspan of at least ten feet, with claws for feet and a bird-like face. It looked like a monster, but somehow peaceful and harmless to the girl standing beneath it.

I sighed and brushed my fingertips over the lines of the scenery. I wanted to know what these dreams meant, if anything. I'd been having dreams with these seven people in it with scenery similar to the one I had just sketched. Some nights some of the seven people were missing, but in this sketch I had included all of them. I had never seen all seven of them in this scene in my dreams, with the tall palm trees of what looked to me like a tropical island, but I had wanted to include them all in my drawing.

Still running my fingers over the sketch, I stopped abruptly. My fingers were... tingling? Staring at the picture, my mouth dropped open into what passer-by would have thought was sheer joy at the drawing I had created. The look on my face wasn't joy... it was shock. I couldn't remove my fingers from the paper... they seemed stuck.

I couldn't take my eyes away from the page in front of me, even if I had wanted to. The page was slowly starting to fill itself with colour, faint at first but then vibrant, bright colors before my eyes.

My fingers started to slowly sink into the page before me. "What the bloody hell...?" I said out loud. My whole hand was now submerged in the paper itself. I could feel the paper drawing me into it, and with a sudden yank on my arm, all that was left under the willow tree were a few stray pencils.

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A/N: Well? What'd you guys think? Good for a start? I hope so! Leave me reviews and suggestions about how you think Ember should react to what is going to happen next and how her attitude would be! You never know, I may just use your idea! –nods- Reviews = happy, inspired me! So if you want to see more, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do! 


	2. Introductions of a Foreigner

A/N: Yay, reviewers! -jumps around- -blinks- er... -cough- yes... Umm anyway. Well I'm glad I got a new reader other than kingwolfx4 (cause I told him to read it that's why he read it :p) And thankie for the review ChakaTehMoogle –nods- I'm glad someone likes my idea -bouncies around some more- -coughs- yes anyway onto the ficcy!

DISCLAIMER: This is the last time I'm putting a disclaimer on this ficcy cause guess what, I'm hoping you guys are smart enough to figure out that I will not own SquareEnix and all their games until my plot to take over the world is successf..... -cough- er... -nervous giggle- I didn't say nothing!! -runs off-

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**Chapter Two – Introductions of a Foreigner**

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"Yuna, we really need to start out soon, you know"

"I know, I know, I just want to make sure this girl is okay..."

"Why doesn't someone use a potion on her, ya?"

A sudden cool sparkling sensation spread quickly through my body and my eyes snapped open.

"See, what did I tell ya, it worked! Now let's go!"

I turned my head over to the direction of the voices and squinted until my eyes came into focus.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" I screamed as I tumbled off the bed and backed all the way into the side of the canvas hut I was in. Shaking so much that it must have shown, I raised my hand to point an index finger at the woman in the black dress.

"Y-y-you!" I stuttered.

The woman in black focused her gaze on my face, showing me I had her attention.

"What's... your name?" I asked. If this woman's name was Lulu, I was _so_ going to have a heart attack right then and there.

"Lulu," she stated.

I stumbled backwards a few more steps and fell back against the canvas. Okay this was just a little too weird... no, not just weird, this was freakin' _freaky!_

I pointed to the man with the orange spiked hair. "You're Wakka."

Wakka looked at me closely from where he was standing, studying my features to see if he could place whether or not he had seen me before.

Pointing to the girl with the long sleeves and shoulder-length brown hair, "You're Yuna.." I stated.

I continued along the row of people who had haunted my dreams for the past few weeks. "Tidus, and Kimahri..." I blinked. "Where are Rikku and Auron?"

"Who the heck are you talking about, ya?" Wakka asked, a bewildered look on his face, probably due to the fact that I had just named each of his comrades without even thinking.

I noticed that Tidus' face had shown the smallest hint of recognition at the two names, but I pretended I didn't notice.

"Uh.. never mind." I replied. Why had I opened my big mouth? Rikku and Auron were still strangers to these people, it was creepy enough that five out of the seven people in my dreams were here anyway.

I looked at Yuna, who looked away quickly. What was wrong with her? It was Lulu who voiced the answer.

"How did you know our names?" She asked in her cool tone of voice. "Where did you come from? We found you blacked out behind this hut last night around midnight and it's now nearly sunset. You've been out cold for who knows how long before we found you."

I licked my dry lips, trying to buy myself some time to answer. How much information should I give these people? From my dreams they seemed trustworthy enough, but how much could I trust them? Hell, how did I know this wasn't a dream right now in the first place? I sighed. _'I may as well tell them everything...'_ I thought to myself. _"If this is a dream, it won't make a difference... and if this is real, well, we'll figure that out on the way...'_

"I came from a place called Earth," I started. I had refrained from using the word 'planet' as I didn't want to totally confuse these people who had probably never heard of alternate planets other than their own. "I have no idea how I got here... one minute I was sketching a drawing, and the next minute, I woke up here."

"What's your name?" Yuna asked. It was the first time she had spoken to me directly. There was a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Ember.... Ember Yevon" I replied.

"Yey-vonne?" Wakka repeated. "Hey.. that sounds an awful lot like.."

"Yevon." Lulu interrupted.

At the mention of the word Yevon, Wakka did a weird bow sort of thing, in which his hands ended up in a cupped circle in front of his chest.

I looked at him, puzzled. "What was that all about?" I asked, referring to the little thinger he just did with his hands.

Wakka's eyes went wide as he gasped. "You don't know... the _prayer_?!"

"Prayer to what?" I asked.

"Yevon," Lulu answered for Wakka. "How far away is your Earth from here?"

"I really have no clue.." I responded. "I do know for a fact though, that..."

"That what?" Tidus prompted when I didn't finish my sentence.

"That it's a different planet." I finished in a quiet whisper.

When nobody spoke after a few minutes, I looked at Yuna. "Yuna.. can I have a word with you? In private?" I asked.

"Um.. sure. Let's go for a walk." Yuna suggested.

I nodded, following her out of the hut.

After we had walked for a few minutes, I stopped and turned to Yuna. I knew I had to do this, I had been referred to as this title in the dreams I had had, and this is how I would come to claim that title.

"Yuna," I started. "I would like to become your guardian and travel with you on your pilgrimage." I said all in one breath. Why was I so _nervous_?

Yuna smiled at me warmly. "For some reason, I feel that I know you from somewhere." She said. "And for that reason, I accept your offer."

I sighed a breath of relief. Why had she seemed so nervous around me just a few minutes back? "Should we head back then? That's what I wanted to talk to you about..."

Yuna nodded, turning around to follow the path back to the hut.

When we arrived back at the hut, Yuna made the announcement, to everyone's shock.

"But Yuna! You hardly know her, ya!" Wakka argued.

"Wakka, you know the rules better than anyone," Lulu said. "Once Yuna has accepted an offer of a potential guardian, the offer cannot be retracted unless mutually withdrawn between Summoner and Guardian."

Wakka made a noise of what I took as anger in his throat. "But look! She has green eyes! She must be an Al-Bhed! I ain't traveling with no dirty Al-Bheds, ya!" he said, raising his voice on the last sentence.

"She's not an Al-Bhed, Wakka. Learn some tolerance." Lulu said, exasperated. "When have you seen an Al-Bhed with black hair? Besides, her eyes don't have spirals in them."

Wakka made another noise in his throat and left the hut angrily.

"It's settled then," Lulu said coolly. "We leave at daybreak. Now get some rest, this may be the last time you sleep in a bed for a while." At that, Lulu also left the hut, probably to find Wakka.

"You can sleep there," Yuna pointed to the bed that I had woken up on. "If you need anything, let me know, okay?"

I nodded and lay down on the bed. Before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep.

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A/N: I don't know if this chappie had any amount of excitement, but hopefully it entertained you guys. I always have a hard time starting out chappies, I know what I want to do in a chapter usually, but I never know how to start it. Blah. Well, review and let me know what you think! 


	3. An Encounter With a Nightmare

A/N: Ahh! Again, I'm soo sorry about not updating in a while, I've been kinda neglecting my ficcys lately and now I feel bad for it because some people actually enjoy reading my ficcys, which makes me happy of course. So again, like my last chappie on my other ficcy, this chappie may be a little forced due to a bit of writers block on my part with not being able to think of what to do next and stuff. Anyway, drop me a review if you like the chappie, and if you don't like it, well tell me what I can do to improve it… nicely, of course. Being mean in reviews doesn't make anyone happy. –nods-

Anyway, hope you enjoy the chappie… -cracks knuckles and gets ready to think of ideas-

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**Chapter Three – An Encounter With a Nightmare**

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I awoke with a start. I had been dreaming of home, of my mother's reaction to my report card. It wasn't very pretty.

That got me thinking. Now that I was in Spira, would my dreams consist of my future back on Earth? Was time on Earth standing still, or was it still moving? What was the difference in time from here? Was one day on earth weeks or years in Spira? Or was it the other way around? I was starting to make my head hurt thinking of the possibilities.

I sat up on my bed, stretching my arms over my head, listening for the familiar crack of my back after laying down all night. Sighing, I pushed myself off my bed and started my morning routine, which mostly consisted of stretches, and if I was feeling in the mood, and had time, I would also practice my various punching and kicking techniques that I learned in my martial arts classes. Those were fun to do, a great way to start the day.

Tidus opened the flap of the hut just as I kicked my leg out in a kick designed to shatter a person's kneecaps if executed properly.

"Woah, watch it there," Tidus said, backing up a few steps.

"Heh, sorry," I said sheepishly, bowing my head a little to hide my face. I hated people watching me do my morning stuff, it felt awkward to have someone watch me, although I was used to having people watch me, it was only when I was sparring against someone, and they were only watching me to see if they could block my next attack.

"Lulu says to get ready to go, we're leaving soon."

"Oh, okay," I said, grabbing my backpack. I was already dressed, seeing as I had slept in the clothes I came in… and well, they were frankly the only clothes I had with me. It wasn't as if I kept a spare wardrobe in my backpack. This would have to do.

I followed Tidus out of the hut, into the center of the village. The sun was just beginning to rise in the east, and everyone looked a little anxious to get going. Yuna looked especially nervous. Why was she so nervous all the time? And what was this whole trip about anyway? My dreams had never explained that aspect very well. Seeing Yuna's nervous face, I decided to save the questions for later.

"So, are we ready to go?" I asked in a falsely cheery voice.

Wakka rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms above his head. "Ya, I suppose we better get goin'. The boat leaves soon for Kilika, we don't wanna be late, ya?"

"Yes, let's be on our way," Yuna agreed, nodding her head slightly.

"But first, we pray at the overlook," Wakka said. "When Chappu left to fight Sin, he never prayed, ya? We pray, or I'm not leaving this island!"

Chappu? Who the heck was he?

Tidus looked down at the sword he was holding, sheepishly running his finger along the handle.

Lulu saw my confused look and leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. "Chappu was Wakka's little brother, he left to fight Sin and never came back." She sighed. "And now Wakka thinks Tidus is Chappu, or something along those lines."

"Ah," I said.

"Let's get going then," Lulu said as she motioned to the gate leading out of the village.

Wakka was the first to walk towards the exit of the village, leading the way. As we started to walk out of the village, people came out of their huts and waved goodbye to Yuna, many of younger children were crying. I noticed tear streaks on a few of the adult faces as well.

Yuna waved to them and turned towards the gate. I saw the glisten of unshed tears in her eyes. Moving towards her, I nudged her a bit with my arm, letting her know I was there for her if she needed to talk to someone. She looked over at me and smiled the tiniest bit. I knew this was probably very hard for her, having to leave her hometown behind to go somewhere, somewhere that I still wasn't sure of.

After walking for a bit, we came upon the statue at the overlook.

"We stop and pray here, ya?" Wakka said, looking back at the others.

I stood a little behind them, just observing what Wakka was doing. He seemed to be a pretty religious guy.

When Wakka was done praying, we started towards the trail, which, I assumed, would lead us to the Besaid port where we were supposed to get on a boat. Crap… a boat.

"Uhmm…" I said aloud, to nobody in particular.

"Uhmm what?" Tidus asked.

"We're going to Kilika… on a boat… right?" I said nervously. I had always hated boats, I had a phobia of them or something. My dad had always tried to get me to go sailing with him when I was smaller… but I never did enjoy it… especially after I witnessed my own father drown in a sudden storm that came up while he was trying to teach me how to sail the boat. I had been only eight years old then, and he hadn't been wearing a life jacket. I had been knocked unconscious after he had gone under the water, and I had floated back to shore to be found days later by a search party my frantic mother had sent out. They never found my dad's body.

Tidus' face paled. "B-boat?" He glanced at Wakka nervously.

"Ya, a boat. Gotta problem with that?"

Tidus and I both laughed nervously.

"Eh-heh heh. N-no… no problem at all, Wakka. I'll be fine…" I said, my face probably very pale.

"Good. We'll be there soon, then we're off to Kilika." Wakka said.

I let out a silent sigh. How was I going to cope with being on a boat? I hadn't even been able to go near any large body of water since my dad drowned… I hadn't even been able to go near a swimming pool for at least a good two years afterward.

I trudged along a little behind the rest of the group, although Kimahri was behind me. I mulled over the possibilities. I highly doubted there would be any other way to get to Kilika other than on the boat, it's not like we could just catch a plane or anything.

Soon the view of a large beach with pure white sand came into view. My heart skipped a few beats. That meant that we would be getting on that boat soon. Boat. Boat. Oh gods.

Yuna was greeted at the beach by a group of people, obviously there to see her off. A lot of people kept pushing gifts of potions, elixirs, and even jewelry at Yuna. Yuna gave each person a hug, she obviously knew most of them, having grown up in the small village of Besaid.

After the crowd had dispersed into the direction of the dock and the waiting boat, Yuna started to lead the way towards the boat. I let my gaze fall onto the boat, it looked more like a small ship to me. But then again, I didn't have much experience with boats and ships. It did look pretty large, though.

Yuna walked onto the dock, followed by the others. I stopped just before the dock, still safe on solid ground. I stood there, waiting for a revolution, something, anything, anything so I wouldn't have to get onto that boat. There was no way I was going to get on that boat, I couldn't. I wasn't ready to face my fear just yet.

I started to back away slowly from the dock, only to bump into something furry. I turned around and was greeted by the gaze of Kimahri. He put his paw on my shoulder, nodding towards the boat.

"N-no.. I can't Kimahri. You don't understand…"

Kimahri opened his other paw to reveal a glittering chain. He held it out to me, motioning for me to take it.

I took it in my fingers and held it up to my face to study it closely. It was light as air and almost looked like it was made of a translucent type of material.

"Is this for me..?" I asked, looking up at Kimahri's large yellow eyes.

He nodded and I put the bracelet on my wrist.

Kimahri took his paw off my shoulder and started to walk towards the ship. I followed him, walking across the dock and up the ramp leading onto the ship. It wasn't until I was standing beside Lulu on the ship that I'd realized what I had one. I had walked onto the ship without even a second thought. I lifted my arm up to my face and studied the bracelet on my wrist carefully. What was this thing, anyway? Shrugging, I let my gaze fall to the people waving frantically to Yuna on the dock below.

The ship set off from the dock, and Yuna kept waving to the people until she couldn't see them anymore.

Yuna let out a sigh and came to sit beside me near the side of the boat where I had taken up residence for the time being.

"You going to be okay?" I asked her.

"Yes.. I'm sure I'll be fine… it's just hard leaving people behind, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." I replied.

"What's that thing on your wrist? You didn't have it on before," Yuna said, pointing to the contraption Kimahri had given me.

"Kimahri gave it to me, and whatever the heck it is, it got rid of my fear of being on this ship, I think.." I said, playing with the clasp on the bracelet. Maybe it was time to test and see if it really was the bracelet that was keeping me from being scared.

Just as the clasp came undone on the bracelet, the ship lurched and tilted to one side considerably. The bracelet slipped from my grasp and slid to the other end of the boat.

I panicked. And when I said panicked, I mean panicked. I started to hyperventilate, trying desperately to grab onto any solid object that would keep me safe. But this was a boat, nothing on this boat was safe. The boat could tip over at any second, leading me to have the same fate as my father!

"SIN!!" Someone from the bow of the boat shouted.

I crawled over as quickly as I could toward the large mast of the boat. I grabbed onto it, holding on for dear life, breathing heavily the whole time. I snuck a glance towards the bow of the boat, and saw something I never thought I would ever see in a million lifetimes.

A demon from my nightmares. This was Sin, so it had been called. The large gray dome of its back went back under water, the suction causing the ship to lurch violently.

I screamed out in terror, clutching to the wooden mast with all I was worth. I wanted this to end, this had to end, now! I dug my nails into the wood of the mast, the wood splintering beneath my grasp, the shards of wood digging deep into the skin under my nails.

I shut my eyes tight, pleading with any god that would listen, any deity who would happen to listen in on my silent pleas.

I stayed conscious long enough to hear a violent roar come from the starboard side of the ship, the roar accompanied by a deafening whooshing sound.

Silence.

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A/N: Woah, that was a pretty long chappie for me. Took me long enough to write, too. ;; Anyway, I hope that anyone who read it enjoyed this chappie… hopefully the next chappie will come sooner than the chappies have been coming out lately. Please leave me a review, they make me want to write! 


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